South West businesses raise more than £176 million in equity investment last month

By Nicky Godding

9 August 2021

Share

The Business Magazine article image for: South West businesses raise more than £176 million in equity investment last month

Companies raised more than £176 million in equity funding in the SouthWest last month, according to Briony Phillips, writing for Tech Spark, the not-for-profit network for the digital technology cluster in the West.

That includes a $50 million Series D round by Bristol-based Ultraleap and $18 million in Moneyhub in their largest round yet.

Briony is Scaleup Lead at Rocketmakers, a Bath-based software development agency that designs technology for startups, scaleups and corporations.

Bristol-based XCD HR secured a further £3m from investors BGF to facilitate acquisition of recruitment software company Hireserve:Ultraleap, in Bristol, received its investment from Image Frame Investment, a Tencent subsidiary, of $50 million (nearly £35 million). The investment forms just the first phase of the company’s Series D round.

Bath-based Somnus Scientific has raised £600,000 to improve patient survival and recovery rates following anaesthesia. The funding comes from a combination of private investors and a cornerstone institutional investor Utilico Emerging Markets Trust plc.

Moneyhub Enterprise, an open finance data, intelligence and payments platform based in Bristol, announced its largest investment round to date. $18m will fund its rapid expansion into new markets.

Comentis, based in Stroud, secured £200,000, against a pre-revenue valuation of £2m. Funding has been secured from senior figures from legal and financial services, with the support of Invest West. The Cognitive Assessment Engine (CAE) – uses technology to deliver the clinical expertise of renowned mental health experts to legal firms during the risk assessment process.

August has already produce deals with Bristol-based TravelLocal and GapSquare announcing significant deals.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.